Leftwich Chapman Flooring America

One field trip my class went on was to Leftwich Chapman’s Flooring America. This local Lubbock store selling everything from hardwood floors, carpet to tiles. Majority of the business of Flooring America is commercial work, although they have worked with residential areas.

Over seventy percent of their sales is hardwood floor and then the second top selling is carpet. The store is also divided into these three sections. The first section of the tour, we stood in the hardwood floor section and he told us about the different types of flooring he has, the cost and which ones are the most popular. He also told the group about the different prices ranges of the wood flooring. One of the most interesting floorings is the cork and leather floors. We were told a story about one of the uses of leather flooring. A customer that had come in enjoyed hunting in his spare time and had a room where he kept many of the heads of animals he had shot. The leather floor had working perfectly in this room where he could display his kills. The cork flooring was also very interesting. When you think of cork, the first thing that comes to mind is a bulletin board, and he had pointed out. With the way the cork had been treating and made, it was a strong and durable material that differed from cork used in a bulletin board. This made the flooring tough and able to be using in flooring.

In the carpet section, we mostly focused on the feel of the carpets instead of learning more about them. Many of the carpets were very soft and several of the students commented on how they could easily fall asleep on them, even standing up! We flipped through many of the samples of carpet to see which one was softer. He also shared a story about one of the more expensive carpets that is also resistant to bleach. He did warn us to not spill bleach on the carpet just because it has resistance!

When we got to the tile side of the store, everyone was fascinated by the different types of tile that was everywhere. Many of the natural stones tiles had caught my eye. The glass pieces were also a beautiful sight. He explained how they used many of the tiles for countertops and backsplashes in residential areas.

Another thing the class was shown was laminate wood and tile flooring. It looked so realistic! He explained how similar they looked to the real thing and talked about how much easier the care would be to have the laminate flooring instead of the real thing. Right outside the door for the laminate showroom was the more expensive carpets. I believe that was the class’ favorite part of the tour. Everyone looked through all the different types of patterns and materials that were used. Each student had found a new favorite piece of carpet that day!

Leftwich Chapman’s Flooring America was a very exciting field trip. Each student got to learn something new about hardwood flooring as well as good locations for it to be used. Also, everyone found the softest carpet that want to put in their house when they get older. Overall we learned a few things, but mostly got excited about the texture and beauty throughout the store.